Beauty & lifestyle

LORAC

I am currently at my parent’s house having a nice break from my own chaotic home, eating good food, online shopping and lazying about 😀 Now, that is my kind of weekend…especially post baby 😉

I received the LORAC Pro Mascara for free when I purchased something from their site a while back..I think it might be when I bought the LORAC Pro palette 2 (Psst..I’ve fallen out of love with it sadly).

LORAC Pro Mascara

I was quite bummed when I first opened up the tube since the brush was huge and not my style at all. Anyway they say not to completely dismiss a mascara by the shape and size of the wand..so I went ahead anyway and gave it a try.

As expected, the big brush was a problem for me. Maybe its my eye shape..but this humongous brush proved to be an issue when I tried to coat my inner most lashes. Take a look at the brush below:

The mascara wand

It also didn’t help that each time I pull the wand out of the tube, the tip would have a huge blob of the mascara. I pretty much always landed up getting mascara smeared on my lids or the nose or somewhere near my eyes when I used this wand 😦

The messy application aside, the actual mascara formula wasn’t that great either. I think it can be best described as meh! I have used better drugstore mascaras and at the same time the formula on this one wasn’t the most terrible one I have used till date.

I usually look for a combination of length (70%) and volume (30%) when it comes to mascaras. This formula did not wow me in either department. Things were going on okay in the Meh mascara world for a while and then the tube crossed the 1 month mark..things went downhill from there! The drier formula made it impossible for me to apply more than 1 coat…2 coats and I had 3 lashes due to massive clumping 😦

I have to give this mascara some brownie points for not smudging and lasting all day when applied. Also I do have sensitive eyes and these did not make me tear up.

Overall, this mascara was just not my cup of tea and I am glad I got this as a gift with purchase. Have you tried the LORAC Pro mascara? Does it work for you?

I recently busted out my Lorac Pro 2 palette after a bit of a hiatus and I’m back in love with it again. It is one of my favorite palettes ! We are talking buttery smooth shadows, lovely colors and awesome pigmentation 🙂 If you want more details about the palette do check out my review of the Lorac Pro 2 palette HERE!

I usually don’t do intense smokey eyes since I have deep set, maybe slightly hooded eyes (?). Intense smokey eyes make me look tired so I always try to tone things done when attempting a smokey eye. The look featured here didn’t make me look like I haven’t slept in weeks and so obviously this deep set eyed girl is liking it! 😉

Smokey and Taupe-y

In the picture it doesn’t look as smokey as it does in person! But trust me its smokey!! 😀

To achieve this look I used 4 shadows from the Lorac Pro 2 palette.

The mix of shadows used

First off, I blended the shade Charcoal into my crease to create some definition. I then used the shade Plum in the crease and blended it with charcoal, also concentrating the shade Plum in the outer V area of the eye.

The star of the show is the shade Chrome which is a lovely satin finish taupe shade! I used this shade all over the lid and did not take it into the crease area. Lastly, I used a tinge of the shimmer shade Beige to highlight the brow bone area.

Hope your all having a great Sunday! Happy mother’s day to all the mothers out there!!

As promised, here are some simple looks you can do with the LORAC PRO 2 Palette 🙂 Here I have featured 3 looks, however the palette with its 16 shadows is quite versatile and there are endless combinations you can come up with!

Look 1

Look 1

Everyone is doing the gold and plum look this fall, but guess what silver and plum make a great combination too! Here I have applied silver all over the lid, used a bit of cool grey in my crease and Plum in the outer corner. I used the matte shade Nectar as my brow bone highlight.

Look 2

Look 2

So this particular look uses only 3 shades with 2 of them being my favorite shades from this palette. I used the lovely rose champagne shade called Rose all over my lid and used the cobalt blue shade Navy on the outer corner. The soft shimmery shade Beige was used as a brow bone highlight.

Look 3

Look 3

This last look here is a day time smokey look in my opinion. It is smokey enough to be called smokey and not so smokey that you can’t wear it during the day 😀 I took this snap almost 8 hours after applying the eyeshadow so its not as fresh looking as the other 2 looks. I love the shade chrome and its the perfect all over the lid shade in my opinion! Here we have Chrome all over the lid, charcoal in the crease and black in the outer corner. I used the shimmery white shade Snow as a brow bone highlight.

I got the Lorac Pro 2 palette a while back and have been playing around with it for 2 months now…aaaand I am finally ready to review it 🙂 I was on the verge of getting the Pro 1 palette when this was released and when I got a chance to compared them both in store I was drawn more to the Pro 2 palette since it contained shades I did not have in my collection. The Pro 1 looked really basic to me and I might get that at some point when I run out of basic shades (I have a feeling the wait will be really long for that to happen!).

The LORAC PRO 2 Palette

This is my first LORAC palette and I have to say I am blown away with the texture of these shadows! I know a lot of people don’t like the soft buttery texture which can crumble and get powdery if you man handle them with your brush, but to me they are perfect! Just make sure you don’t jab your brush into them! As you might be aware, the palette can be divided into the top row of mattes and the bottom row of shimmers/satin finishes. In terms of texture, all of these are excellent in my opinion. The mattes don’t feel chalky and the shimmers have little to no fall out since they don’t contain chunky glitter.

I have heard people complaining about the shadows getting muddy when blending. I personally don’t do many complicated looks (I use 3 shadows max at one time) on a daily basis, so I did not have any issues with blending. In fact , I thought these shadows blended quite seamlessly for daily wear looks!

I know you guys must have seen umpteen swatches of this palette online, one more set of swatches won’t hurt 😉 I do apologize for the not so great swatches though, since lighting has become an issue these days (I rely heavily on sunlight and where I am we don’t get much of it right now) !

LORAC PRO 2 Palette swatches 1

The palette can also be divided into the slightly neutral side and the smokey side. These swatches are just a slight touch of my finger to my arm, and despite that they come through with their color. These shades above are very versatile and can be used for really basic looks. My favorites are the shimmer/satin shades! Rose is a lovely rose champagne color and Mocha is quite the stellar all over lid shade too!

LORAC PRO 2 Palette swatches 2

Navy was one of the shades that drew me to this palette! It is probably the only blue eye shadow I have which doesn’t apply like black on the lid. Plum is another really pretty matte shade, though it isn’t the best plum shade I own. I really love Chrome! Its a lovely satin taupe shade which would look great on anyone! The only true dud shade for me in this palette was Jade. It swatches pretty but on the lid I don’t see any of that pretty green color I see in the pan. I also found charcoal to be a bit on the chalkier side but it is still workable.

The packaging is sleek and storage friendly. However I am not sure if its sturdy enough to be popped into a bag with other random items and taken on the go especially since the shadows themselves are quite delicate.

When this palette came out everyone classified this as a cool toned palette. I however, feel at best this is more of a neutral leaning palette compared to the very warm LORAC PRO 1. I have yellow undertones and this palette was neither warm toned nor cool toned for my coloring (MAC NC 25-30). I am not sure how well some of these shades will perform on really dark skin tones but for the most part I think this palette can be used by a wide range of skin tones.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post if your looking forward to seeing this palette in action! I will be exclusively using this palette to create 4 easy to do looks 🙂

I recently got my hands on the LORAC pro 2 palette and have been experimenting with it quite a bit. On a rainy day with nothing else to do, I created an extremely easy shimmery look (probably appropriate for a wild night out!) using the pro 2 palette and the 3D liquid lustre in Diamond from LORAC.

Shimmer all the way!

Of course you can Jazz this up with winged black eyeliner or even another contrasting color on the lower waterline. This is a really easy eye look you can use if you plan to dress up as an ice queen this Halloween 😀

The 3 step look

Step 1: Apply the shade Navy (isn’t it gorgeous) from the LORAC pro 2 palette all over the lid.

Step2: Darken the outer corner of your eye using the black shade from the same palette.

Step 3: Shake the bottle of LORAC liquid lustre vigorously to mix the pigment well. Then take a drop of it on your finger tip and gently pat all over the eye. Voila!!

So if you guys saw my review on the LORAC 3D liquid lustre set (HERE) yesterday I had promised to feature some looks using them….so here it is!! As I said so in the review yesterday, the liquid lustre does pack a punch in the shimmer/glitter sector so these are perfect for a night out 🙂

Eye Look 1 featuring Liquid Lustre in Diamond

Diamond

In my review post, I had mentioned how I like to apply the liquid lustre on the eyelid first and then apply eyeshadow on top of it. So here I applied the liquid lustre in diamond followed by a lovely purple matte eyeshadow from MAC all over the lid. The shade is Black Tulip and I think it was a limited edition shade but quite dupable.

Eye look 2 featuring liquid lustre in Topaz

Topaz

In this look I applied Topaz all over the lid and applied a sparkling blue eyeshadow from an old limited edition Dior travel palette on the outer corner. Here too, any dark blue eyeshadow will do the same 🙂

Eye look 3 featuring liquid lustre in Amethyst

Amethyst

This is also a very easy look to achieve! I have Amethyst all over my lid with Moderato from the Balm Jovi Palette in the outer corner. I really love the color of Amethyst and the shimmer is slightly toned down compared to the other shades. Of course with all of these liquid lustres you can build up or sheer down the intensity. All the looks here are with just a single drop of the liquid lustre per eyelid!

Eye look 4 featuring liquid lustre in Platinum

Platinum

Platinum applies quite opaque and here I have paired it up with a sparkling black shadow(from the same Dior palette) in the outer V area of the lid. As you can see the black gets transformed into a softer darkish blue when applied on top of platinum. Platinum is perfect for a shimmery smokey eye !!

I am so excited to write today’s post 🙂 I recently ordered some stuff from the beauty.com website and I got a set of the LORAC 3D Liquid lustre for free !! If I remember correctly, this set was released during the holidays and I guess they are trying to clear stock. I also noticed that its still available on the LORAC website for 18 bucks which is a steal in my opinion since a single bottle of this retails for around that much!!

The Lorac 3D liquid lustre set, from left to right:Platinum, Amethyst,Topaz and Diamond

This set comes with 4 different shades: Diamond which is the white shimmer one retails as a single and the other 3 are limited edition shades. Platinum is a grey metallic shade, Amethyst is a lovely deep lavender shade and topaz which is a coppery bronze shade.

The liquid lustre vial consists of very fine shimmer which is suspended in a mixing medium. As you can see from the pic above when the bottles are at rest the pigment and the medium separate out. Prior to use, you have to shake the bottle vigorously to mix the pigment and the medium together and then using the dropper you can dab a little onto to your finger tips and apply on your lids! I have tried to use a brush but I couldn’t get an even application so I would say using your fingers is the way to go.

The Dropper

Now, this is an awesome product to try if you like shimmer of any kind! I have been very happy with the way these perform so far. They do not fade or crease even after 12 hours of wear which is the longest period of time I wore them. According to LORAC, these liquid shadows can be applied over eyeshadow or worn alone on the eyes and even cheeks. I have worn these alone and they are awesome especially Topaz, Amethyst and Platinum since they apply quite opaque. I also prefer to apply these first and they apply eyeshadow on top rather than the other way around as suggested by LORAC.

Once applied it stays put but it can move around a bit if you try to blend using a brush. So in case you want to do some blending after applying these its best to be gentle.

Swatches

The swatches above are with just a single drop from the dropper after mixing everything vigorously. As you can see from the above swatches, the shade diamond is quite sheer and hence this is more suitable as an eyeshadow topper rather than being used alone on the lids. Also you might have noticed that the shade platinum which is grey blue gives the best opaque application. These are quite versatile and you can easily build up the intensity if you want to an almost metal foil like look on the lids 🙂

Now, these come in a glass bottle and they are liquid so they are not very travel friendly in my opinion. Also, if you don’t like shimmer of any kind these are not for you! I find these too intense to wear during the day but they are perfect for a night out 🙂

Overall, this is a fun product to have in your collection!!

I will post some eye looks I have done using these..so look out for that tomorrow folks!! Now available HERE !